Women who Run with the Wolves

Meeting with the feminine psyche

The announcement of 53% of white women in America voted for Trump leads me to say that the feminism has not come close from having conquered… all the women. And to be honest, I didn’t see it coming!

Then, probably my reading of the legendary book of Clarissa Pinkola Estés « Women who run with the wolves » won’t solve a thing (it’s probably not their kind of readings) but maybe it could help me to think about it. Let’s see.

I bought this book 5 years ago on the advice of my naturopath. I tried to read it almost a dozen of times in vain. But, last month this book suddenly appelled me. And apparently it’s the same magical attraction for most of the women who read it. At key times of their life. And, it’s also well known that, most of the time you won’t read it in one go. You read, you forget, you read again, etc.

The subject is simply fabulous. It talks about Women as an endangered species, interconnected by a common psyche, the wild woman’s one.The author is psychotherapist, ethnologist and storyteller.
Storytellings precisely. We all know about Oedipe, a founding myth which describes a very specific point of child development. Some tales reach across times because they’re talking about specific points of human life and specially of women life.

The second principe that you may already know is that the heroin in the story is just a part of the feminine psyche; because the psyche is fueled by all the characters at the same time. Woman is not only the young one who marries Bluebeard, she is also her sisters, her brothers, the skeletons in the forbidden room and of course also Bluebeard himself.
GREAT!

So for developing or even… ending, the feminine psyche will need to progress through different levels.
A bit like in « Vice-Versa », woman will need to listen to several voices to be able to change, she will need to kill her « too-good » mother part (if she doesn’t want to become a submissive or too cautious woman), unmask Bluebeard (we talk about this sooner, when you already know that the guy you have a crush on will put you down but doesn’t matter you still go on!)(maybe the beginning of an answer for the Trumpettes syndrome?), coax the terrifying Baba-Yaga (her magical, irascible and dangerous part), show her ugly part as the skeleton woman for touching instead of seducing Man…

I stopped reading in the middle, totally captivate. But there is so much to process in that I need a little break before reading it again. It’s really a transformative book!

Throughout this reading I thought about Bjork, Marina Abramovic, Erykah Badu, Romy Schneider, Lauryn Hill… all this wild women who inspire me since so many years. I also thought about Miyazaki’s movies (WHO’S GOING TO MAKE ANOTHER MOVIE…!!!!!!!). Chihiro is my favorite one. He’s often described as a feminist because he portrays very courageous and singular women whatever the stages or trials of life they have to deal with. While I was reading it, it seemed obvious that in many of his movies Miyazaki draws on archetypal tales about the wild woman. In a language so close to unconscious and dreams, he also describes for his heroines, this specific moment when her psyche has to evolve. The wild woman has thousands of faces and such power.